Privacy commissioner probing Nunavut gov't following Iqaluit post office changes
Nunavut's information and privacy commissioner is launching a formal review of the government of Nunavut's practices of sending sensitive mail though Canada Post.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Anna Fowler, Nunavut's deputy minister of executive and intergovernmental affairs, commissioner Graham Steele said he will specifically be looking into four types of sensitive mail the territorial government sends through the mail: payroll-related, income assistance, employee discipline letters, and health cards.
The probe comes after Steele raised concerns in December regarding possible privacy risks associated with changes to the mailing system at Iqaluit's post office. In October, Canada Post changed the addressing system for the city's roughly 8,000 people, requiring residents to have their mail addressed to civic addresses, rather than post office boxes.
Steele wrote last month to Nunavut's departments of finance, human resources, and family services, asking what privacy risk assessments had been done, and what steps the government had taken to mitigate the risk of sensitive mail going missing or being misdirected.
Steele's inquiries were answered last week by Fowler, writing on behalf of the government as a whole.
"As you rightly pointed out, the transition from the old post office box numbers to the new street addressing system in Iqaluit has raised privacy concerns," Fowler wrote, sharing Steele's concerns.
"There is a heightened risk of sensitive information being misdirected or lost during Canada Post's transition, as evidence by numerous reports on social media and firsthand experiences of our staff."
Fowler also wrote that as of last week, the government had not received any reports of privacy breaches.
Fowler said the government was working toward issuing public service announcements to promote privacy measures.
Questions unanswered, commissioner says
In his written response to Fowler this week, Steele said he decided to undertake a review after Fowler's letter failed to answer questions he had posed to the government from the onset, regarding what privacy risk assessments have been done, and what steps the government has taken to mitigate the risk of sensitive mail going missing or being misdirected.
"The response is too high-level to be of much assistance," Steele wrote. "Given the lack of detail, I can only assume that risk assessments and mitigation plans have not been completed."
Steele said his review will be completed in time for his appearance before the Legislative Assembly's standing committee in late April.
Fowler, through the government's communications director, did not respond to a request for an interview with CBC News.
Steele declined to comment beyond what was in his letter, citing Nunavut's laws which says his reviews must be conducted in private.
